]]>Sixteen lobbyists raised nearly $2.2 million to aid the presidential campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in 2011, according to a Center for Responsive Politics review of documents filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Eight of Romney’s 16 lobbyist-bundlers were disclosed for the first time in Romney’s fourth-quarter filings with the FEC, including Austin Barbour, the nephew of former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who collected $210,700; Joseph C. Wall of Goldman Sachs, who bundled $30,399 for Romney; and Edward Ingle of Microsoft, who raised $30,260.

Under federal law, only bundlers who are lobbyists are required to be disclosed by campaigns — and even then there are some loopholes.

For instance, lobbyists who collect less than $16,000 in a quarter are not required to be disclosed. Additionally, hosting a fundraiser for a federal candidate in and of itself isn’t enough to warrant disclosure; the legal requirement for disclosure of the lobbyist-bundler’s identity isn’t triggered unless the lobbyist is formally given credit for the fundraising by the candidate’s campaign, Paul Ryan, an attorney at the Campaign Legal Center, told OpenSecrets Blog.

“The definition of ‘bundled contribution’ does not cover situations where the recipient committee knows a contribution was raised by a lobbyist, but does not formally credit the lobbyist” in a recordkeeping system of some sort, Ryan said in an email.

Here is a table detailing Romney’s 16 lobbyists-bundlers. (Update, 2/1: The graph has been updated to include $2,500 that was credited to Sanchez during the third quarter of 2011, which was originally missed in the Center’s tally.)

Lobbyist

Organization

$ Bundled in Q2

$ Bundled in Q3

$ Bundled in Q4

$ Bundled in All 2011

Patrick J. Durkin, Sr.

Barclays

$167,800

$187,025

$419,925

$774,750

Wayne Berman

Ogilvy Government Relations

$101,600

$15,000

$162,475

$279,075

Austin Barbour

Clearwater Group LLC

$0

$0

$210,700

$210,700

T. Martin Fiorentino, Jr.

The Fiorentino Group

$102,900

$78,575

$500

$181,975

David Beightol

Dutko Worldwide

$54,200

$35,260

$50,915

$140,375

William Mark Simmons

The Dutko Group

$0

$34,000

$100,684

$134,684

Robert T. Grand

Barnes and Thornburg

$0

$110,150

$0

$110,150

Ignacio E. Sanchez

DLA Piper

$0

$2,500

$84,200

$86,700

Judi A. Rhines

The Rath Group

$34,200

$34,650

$0

$68,850

Drew K. Maloney

Ogilvy Government Relations

$56,750

$0

$0

$56,750

Joseph C. Wall

Goldman Sachs

$0

$0

$30,399

$30,399

Edward Ingle

Microsoft Corp.

$0

$0

$30,260

$30,260

Bruce A. Gates

Altria Client Services Inc.

$0

$0

$27,500

$27,500

Tom Boyd

DLA Piper

$0

$0

$26,350

$26,350

Ralph W. Hardy, Jr.

Dow Lohnes PLLC

$0

$0

$19,000

$19,000

David Tamasi

Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communication

$0

$0

$16,910

$16,910

Total:

$2,194,428

Some, but not all, of the other GOP presidential hopefuls have been aided by lobbyist-bundlers.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum’s campaign has not reported assistance from any lobbyist-bundlers, and neither has that of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The campaign of Rep. Ron Paul says it does not utilize bundlers.